Sunday, July 12, 2009

Seems like we finally had a day with something to write about besides work (John) and hanging out (me)! John has a couple of days off, so today we got up early (sure seemed early to me!) and hit the roads heading east towards Leavenworth, WA. If any of you have been there you know that it's a Bavarian village up in the mountains of central Washington. Definitely a tourist trap, but a kind of neat one! Many of the shops carry a higher quality of product than you normally find in touristy towns and it's fun to hear the polka music over at the gazebo! Best accordian music I've heard in years!!

We enjoyed good brats sitting in an outdoor restaurant, picked up some cheese and taffy to take home and even found a Christmas present. The plan is to leave the grandson's gifts with their parents during the next couple of months rather than try to find storage room in the RV and then pay postage to ship them! Goodness - we've really got this retirement/budget thing down pat, don't we??!!

On the way home, we stopped at Deception Falls and took the half-mile hike along the Tye River and Deception Creek. Beautiful place and a joy to spend a little time in the "wilderness" again. It was also a reminder that we are not around water as much as we used to be and we miss it. There was a quote on one of the information sign-posts that struck a chord:

There is no rushing a river. When you go there, you go at the pace of the water and that pace ties you into a flow that is older than life on this planet. Acceptance of that pace, even for a day, changes us, reminds us of other rhythms beyond the sound of our own heartbeats.- Jeff Rennicke, River Days: Travels on Western Rivers

Good thing we had that little chunk of peaceful time, 'cause the rest of the drive home took two hours longer than it should have! We assumed the problem was either an accident or construction but we saw no sign of either. Pretty slow going, so we caught up on some phone calls. Hmmm. Reminds one of that old saying: something about making lemonade....

All in all a fun day. And, the kicker was that it appeared to have been cloudy and rainy in Everett all day and it was mostly sunny and about 90 degrees in Leavenworth - yeah!!

Friday, July 10, 2009

I can't believe so much time has passed since I last wrote here! And, I certainly can't claim lack of time right now - just a lack of initiative, I guess...

Anyway, to summarize the last couple of months: I had a great time babysitting for little "Seabass", John & friend, Curt, thoroughly enjoyed the trip west in the motorhome - stopping for the night/shopping at not one, not two, but - yes! - three Cabela's. Probably a good thing I wasn't along:):)

John & Curt left the motorhome in Spokane for some work/maintenance. The last couple of weeks in May we spent in Hawaii with our two sons, their wives and our two adorable little grandsons. One daughter-in-law missed the first five days because of work commitments (bummer!). We had a wonderful time playing with the babies and especially enjoyed seeing them experience the pool and ocean for their first times! The (adult) kids had fun surfing, snorkeling and sightseeing.

After returning to the mainland, we resumed babysitting again. And, since we needed to go pick up the motorhome, we packed up baby and gear, hopped in the toad and made the five hour drive back to Spokane. It took awhile to get gear situated in the motorhome and we made it partway back to Seattle before stopping for the night. Sebastian was a wonderful little traveler, sleeping through refers beside us at the truck stop all night and watching the trees and trucks go by his window over the sofa where we had his car seat strapped in. We drove straight to the RV park north of Seattle where we are spending the summer, checked in and got the rig settled and hooked up in less than an hour and "flew" back down to Seattle to get us and baby cleaned up and dressed, daughter-in-law's mom/stepdad picked up at the airport and all of us to the courthouse for daughter-in-law Jody's bar swearing-in ceremony - whew!

John started his summer job the next week and I headed for Alaska to visit my parents, take care of the annual medical appointments and go to a niece's wedding. It was wonderful to spend time with family again, but getting back "home" to the motorhome - after what seemed like forever! - was even better. We've been full-timing for about 21 months now and still love it - our home and the lifestyle. It doesn't get much better than this!

So, to end this rather longish post, I leave you with a little tidbit of our life - one which will come as no surprise to those of you who know me well and for those of you who don't know me as well, now you know that I've been a very spoiled wife for a long time now!

Since John is working full-time (6 days this week) and I'm not, this morning I was going to put the roast, etc. in the crockpot for our evening dinner. But, because of me not cooking for the past 20 years or so (told you I'm spoiled!), I totally forgot. You see, I'm not exactly in the habit of even thinking about meals (at least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). So tonight we had leftover spaghetti and this is what my loving husband left on the kitchen counter for me before he retired for the night: